


❊ New Beginnings ❊

by Mythstaken



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Family, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Other, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23436412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythstaken/pseuds/Mythstaken
Summary: Some insight into Buffy's mind during Prophecy Girl. Altered timeline because of the mention of Dawn.
Relationships: Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers, Buffy Summers & Joyce Summers, Buffy Summers/Dawn Summers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	❊ New Beginnings ❊

◇─◇──◇────◇────◇────◇────◇────◇─────◇──◇─◇

“Giles, I’m sixteen years old. I don’t wanna die.”

Buffy remembered the exact moment when she knew it had been over.

That she was presto-done for-zo.

It was when the Master’s claws had gathered the white trail of material from her dress in a grip that felt like it had crushed bones. Where the dress was soft and fell around her like a waterfall, the flow was suddenly interrupted by a harsh, ruthless grip tearing at the once delicate fabric.

At that moment, an odd thought passed her head. _Mom was going to be mad_. She had spent a lot of money on this dress, with longer days at the Gallery. Buffy had admired it while she had been window shopping, gazing at the way it had been adorned on the mannequin. She had looked like a princess, but Buffy wouldn’t dare ask. It was much more than her allowance and she wouldn’t have been able to save up for months, but there it had been in her room, wrapped in chiffon when she had come back from school.

Mom knew. Mom always knew. Even when Buffy didn’t deserve it. Buffy hadn’t exactly been the world’s easiest teenager.

What a waste this dress would go to….

The blood stain would never come off the white, even with bleach. Mom wouldn’t be happy.

Buffy remembered being paralyzed. Her body wasn’t her own, it was under his command. Any smart ass commentary caught between dying breaths as he had literally sucked the life out of her.

It had been slow. That had been the hardest part. Nothing easy-breezy-Cover Girl about it. Buffy had felt every second of it until her world had faded to black like the worst possible transition you could use in PowerPoint ever.

They say when you’re dying, your entire life passes before your eyes.

Except, Buffy hadn’t much life to live. She had just been sixteen, barely surviving and navigating the trials and tribulations of the teenaged world and had been thrown into a battle that had no place for children.

She hadn’t seen her entire life.

Instead, she felt sorrow for what she would miss. Not for herself, but the moments she would miss that belonged to others. The little snapshots of memories she would never be able to save for a rainy day.

Blood drawn, body going limp, vision starting to fill with black spots around her edges— She could see her little sister infiltrating her vision. Was she really there? What was she doing?

A smart mouth couldn’t open, couldn’t protest, couldn’t warn my sister.

Buffy couldn’t protect her.

She could feel something wet on her skin, a few lone and warm tears slipping from her eyes. Not from the pain - well, not the physicality of it.

It was over.

Buffy would miss everything. Dawn finishing up elementary school. Her starting high school (she had planned on telling her about vampires then and training her), her first kiss, her first boyfriend, graduating.... college.... wedding. Buffy would miss everything. She wouldn’t get to see if she would grow a foot taller than her (she was already getting there.) Buffy wouldn’t get to see that childish face turn into a woman. She wouldn’t get to braid her hair anymore or pretend to be annoyed when she came and slipped into the covers with her, complaining about touching feet and warm breaths that she really didn’t mind. Not really.

There would be no more fighting over Lucky Charms or who mom loved more.

Mom...

A sharp, faltering breath that was cut off mid-way.

The pain wasn’t there anymore. Buffy felt nothing. Except for that pressure in her lungs that felt like it was burning. Ice-cold. Like I was drowning underwater.

Gold, curly locks and that sweet face. She hadn’t always been good to mom, had she? Buffy could have been a better daughter and not always given her a hard time.

At least, Dawn and mom would have each other. At least, they would be safe…

* * *

Death by Chocolate ice cream covered her little sister’s face.

“You got a little something there,” Buffy told Dawn, who was too busy indulging in her ice-cream cone like it was the last one she would ever have.

“Huh? Where?”

“Right….” Buffy pressed the end of the cone into her nose so that her entire face was covered. “…there!” A grin.

“Hey! Mom! Look what Buffy did!” Her little sister yelped, tongue trying to swipe off the extra on her lips.

Buffy had sworn, she was never such a messy eater.

Mom turned around, looking ready to scold Buffy but she took one look at Dawn and whatever she was going to say halted on her lips, instead a smile replaced it. Score - Buffy. Take that, Dawn.

“Oh, honey….”

“Mom! That’s not fair, look what Buffy did!”

Buffy shrugged innocently, even though the way green eyes danced were anything but innocent. “It’s not my fault that you’re a messy eater, Dawnie.”

“Mom, Buffy’s laughing at me!” Dawn exclaimed, ice-cream dripping on her floor.

“Honey, here…” Mom took out of her many folded napkins, starting to wipe Dawn’s face.

“What a baby,” Buffy muttered, knowing that Dawn could hear her.

What else were big sisters for?

“MOM!”

‘Buffy….’ My mom warned in that tone of voice, the one where she wasn’t trying to laugh, but also trying to appease Dawn.

There was no Chicken Soup for the soul advice for having two completely different daughters, was there?

There was a pout crossing her sister’s lips, but Buffy could tell even she was wanting to laugh. “My face feels sticky. Gross.”

“You raised a genius over here, mom,” Buffy slung an arm around her kid sister, taking a bite out of her ice-cream cone, and she didn’t protest. Instead, Dawn pushed it into Buffy's face, feeling the cold stickiness ruin Buffy's newly glossed lips.

“Dawn!” Buffy quickly grabbed a napkin, as if she had been able to save the gloss. There went the first coat of strawberry margarita.

Buffy heard her mother laugh, looking at the two of them and then she saw her Joyce's glaze over.

“Moooooom, come on,” Buffy hugged her, Dawn quickly joining in with an, “I’m going to give you sticky chocolate kisses.”

“We made the right choice, right? Mom asked them, concern apparent in her voice. That concern had become second nature to her, bred from Buffy’s troublesome ways. “Moving to Sunnydale? This fresh new start?”

“Mom, I just unpacked. This conversation was a pre-packing conversation,” The blonde joked.

Buffy had seen the worry in her mother’s eyes, the creases on skin that were of her doing. Buffy had been that final knife in this family, even if no one had wanted to say it. She knew it. Because of what she had to do, because of what she could not tell them. The unspoken wedge that was Buffy Summers, the scouter of great shoe sales, the destroyer of marriages, families and oh yeah, the Chosen One.

“We’re going to have a great new start here.” Buffy promised her.

No more slaying. No more vampires. No more getting kicked out of school. Buffy had left that all behind me.

Buffy looked at her little sister, affection painting across features. She would get to be a kid, again. She wouldn’t have to listen to mom and dad fight anymore. She wouldn’t have to come slip into Buffy's room at night because their voices were getting a little too loud. “Right, Dawnie?”

“Ri—fffum,” Dawn answered, mouth full of ice-cream.

“It’s Sunnydale. What bad thing could ever happen in a place with one mall.”

* * *

The remaining spots of Buffy's vision had left, and suddenly lungs were on fire.

Buffy had no control. She couldn't move. She could feel the water scorch inside, filling lungs and drowning her under.

She can’t fight it. She can’t resist.

Something warm washes over Buffy. Was it the pain? She can hear my pulse in her ears, growing softer and softer like a faltering drum, white-noise.

Instead, she concentrates on that first day they had in Sunnydale...

.... on Mom and Dawn.

A new beginning. They’d have a new beginning.

Limp.

Darkness.


End file.
